The opposition, flummoxed by AK Party's economic and electoral successes, has seized on issues like these to try to win back support. Onur Oymen, vice president of the staunchly secular CHP party, dismisses Mr. Simsek and other Westernized officials as window dressing. AK Party's ultimate goal, he believes, is an Islamic theocracy.

"You cannot have a short version of the Quran," he says. "They present themselves as representing modern life. It is just the opposite."

Then an opposite viewpoint:

Nonsense, says Cemil Ipekci, an openly gay Turkish fashion designer who wears gold earrings and assortments of flamboyant necklaces and bracelets. "They are not radical Islamists. They are conservative, yes, but not fanatics. Look at me, they socialize with me." He says he and his boyfriend attend state dinners and parties organized by AK Party ministers. The government-owned airline, Turkish Airlines, hired him to re-design its décor.

Cemil Ipekci is foun don the Web, of course; here is one picture of him. And a second one I found in google images. Not exactly a Muslim fundamentalist.

Thousands of Turks visit Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's mausoleum to protest the government plan to lift a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities in February.

Photography

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Quotes

Lydia "said that working with AIDS patients has changed her perspective somewhat. It has hardened her where she had been soft, and made her soft where she had been hard." Free for all: Oddballs, geeks...